Scottish Veterans LX Hockey Club 2014

2014 started well, Scottish Thistles claiming third place in the LUC Ronchin Tournament in Lille in early March and a 0-0 draw between a mainly over 70 Scottish Thistles side and the England Over 70 squad at Durham later the same month. April saw Scotland teams taking the field in Glasgow in the Celtic Cup and retaning both Over 60 and Over 65 Celtic Cups. May saw a very successful (in the social sense) Scottish Thistles trip to Jersey and then it was on to the World Cup in Den Haag, Netherlands in June, where unfortunately neither Scotland side played to its potential. With England failing to find a suitable date for the Home Internationals, it was left to Scottish Thistles to see out the year with a trip to Swansea for the Dragons Festival in July and a match in Carlisle against Cumbria Masters in November - a 1-0 victory to round off a mixed year.

Colin Skinner

Colin Skinner, a former club member and international player, passed away on 28 January 2014 after a short battle with cancer.

AGM - New Committee

At the AGM on 2 March 2014, the new committee was elected for the coming year:

George Dunbar in the News again

Another former member, George Dunbar, in fine health at the age of 93 but now concentrating on fishing, featured in a lengthy article in the Ross-shire Journal of 28 January 2014. George, pictured here at the European Championships in San Cugat, Spain with his son Donald, scored a goal against his former captors, Japan, in the World Cup that year in Hong Kong.

Scottish Thistles Third in Lille

In the LUC Ronchin tournament in Lille on 14-16 March 2014, Scottish Thistles were drawn with teams from
Belgium, England and Netherlands in the group stages.

On the first day, Thistles lost narrowly to England LX through a short corner goal scored after the final whistle, and ran out comfortable 2-0 winners against Belgian side Eburons. Another 2-0 win against Zestigplussers of Netherlands on 15 March put Thistles into the quarter finals as group runners up to England LX, and they beat France 3-1 to set up a repeat match against England LX in the semi final at 9 am on Sunday 16 March. Though Thistles had the lion's share of the match, England LX snatched a goal after 15 minutes and held on to put Scottish Thistles out of the final. In the 3rd/4th playoff, Scottish Thistles beat Welsh Dragons 1-0 to claim 3rd place. report

"Over 70s" draw with England in Durham

A Scottish Thistles squad made up of a majority of players over 70 put up a fine show against the England Over 70 squad on a bitterly cold day on 26 March 2014 in Durham, the match finishing 0-0 with neither goalkeeper being seriously troubled. This was an excellent team performance, with every one of the Scottish players giving his all and keeping discipline throughout. It bodes very well for the near future when Scotland will have enough players to field a full international Over 70 side.

The following day, the squad, with three changes, went down 6-1 to a much younger and stronger England LX Red )ver 65 team. report

Jacques Lévy, LUC Ronchin HC

Regular and irregular participants in the LUC Ronchin tournament in Lille will be sad to hear of the death of its founder, Jacques Lévy, who died on Friday 12 April at the age of 86.

Scotland take both Celtic Cups in Glasgow

Bishop scores the winner against Ireland from the spot

Ireland and France took part for the first time with Scotland and Wales in the Over 60s competition held at Clydesdale Hockey Club, Glasgow on 25-27 April 2014. The Over 65s tournament was fought out between Scotland and Wales who met on Saturday 26 April.

Friday 25 April saw the entry of Ireland and France into the Grand Masters (Over 60) Celtic Cup for the first time since the competition began in 2007. Holders Scotland started their defence of the trophy with a 7-0 win against France while the the Irish went down 3-1 to Wales in the evening of 25 April. On the second day, France again lost 7-0, this time to Wales, while Ireland lost a tight match 2-1 against Scotland to leave Scotland and Wales to contest the Celtic Cup on Sunday 27 April, while France and Ireland scrapped for third place, which Ireland claimed with a 7-0 victory. Scotland narrowly beat Wales 2-1 in the final match to win the Celtic Cup once more.

Scotland and Wales mutually agreed to play again on Sunday 27 April for the Great Grand Masters Celtic Cup after Wales rescued a 2-2 draw with a penalty corner equaliser in the last minute on Saturday 26 April. The match ended in stalemate 0-0, leaving Scotland holding on to the trophy they have held since its inception in 2011.

Scottish Thistles in Jersey

Scottish Thistles visited Jersey on 9-11 May 2014 and had mixed results - a great social trip and a much less successful time on the hockey pitch. They lost 3-0 in both matches, against Old Victorians on Saturday 10 May and England LX on Sunday 11 May. report

Over 60s clinch ninth place in Den Haag

A 3-2 win over South Africa on Thursday 12 June put Scotland Over 60s through to the 9-10 final on the last day of the 2014 Grand Masters World Cup in Den Haag, though they would have to play with five players missing as they had booked flights home too early for the final match. Even with that handicap, they recorded a 2-1 win over Ireland to take ninth place, having won their last three matches after a disappointing series of defeats in the pool matches. Scotland Over 60s had broken their duck in their playoff against New Zealand on Tuesday 10 June, securing a place in the 9-12 finals with a 4-1 victory. Meanwhile, after an unprecedented blunder by the organisers, Scotland Over 65s turned up for their first play off match, which should have been against South Africa but was wrongly listed as against Wales, to find that neither of their potential opponents had appeared. There was now no prospect of the 5-9 playoffs being played to a conclusion, but unbelievably South Africa were given the points in the final results. The 65s suffered a sore defeat the following day, going down 2-0 to Wales in a match which Scotland dominated. Their final match on Thursday 12 June against Italy again resulted in a loss - after clawing back a 2-0 deficit, they conceded a short corner goal in the dying minutes to lose 3-2. results and reports

Dragons Festival Swansea

Scottish Thistles managed a creditable win against Dragons 65s with a spectacular solo goal from Tim Lorimer but the other results over the weekend of 26-27 July went against them. Still, all the players thoroughly enjoyed a good weekend of hockey in Swansea. report

Complete set for Vikki

Vikki Thompson our chiropractor has given birth to a brother for her daughter Eilidh - Ben. Congratulations to Vikki and Glyn and hopefully Vikki will be able to help keep our bodies together again in 2015.

Mike McLintock

Mike McLintock, who last played for Scotland Over 60s some time ago, finally lost his long battle against cancer, and passed away on 6 October 2014. Our sympathies go out to his wife Mary.

Report from Down Under

The big match in Perth, Australia, at the Australian Masters Championships took place on Monday 6 October when Western Australia Country 65s, fielding Alan Bryce and Roy Crichton, took on Ian Downie's side, Tasmania 65s, in the sixth and penultimate round of group matches. Two goals for Roy gave WAC a 2-1 win and greatly reduced Tasmania's prospects of making the semi finals. Roy and Alan have scored all five of WAC's goals to date, with four for Roy and one for Alan. Stair McNab, playing for Victoria, isn't doing so well, his side propping up the table. He was very unlucky in his sixth match when he netted from a short corner which clipped the keeper's pads and deflected high into the net against New South Wales, only to find that the umpire had ruled it out for being too high. in the end, none of the Scots made the finals, Ian's Tasmania ending up fifth, just ahead of Alan and Roy's WAC in sixth, with Stair and Victoria trailing in eighth and last.

Scottish Thistles win in Carlisle

Steve Macdonald scored the only goal of the game for Scottish Thistles against Cumbria Masters at Carlisle Leisure Centre on Tuesday 25 November 2014.

Mr and Mrs Bain

Congratulations to Alan and Christine Bain who were married on 21 December in Shrewsbury Castle.

Rule Changes

FIH introduced two main rule changes and a number of minor changes to take effect in international competitions from 1 January 2015, and Scottish Hockey has ruled that all changes will be implemented immediately for all competitions organised by Scottish Hockey:

Rule 7.4 - the 'long corner' will now be replaced by a hit taken by the attacking side from the 23 metre line, in line with where the ball crossed the back line

Rule 13.1 - a free hit for an offence taking place within 5 metres of the defending circle will be taken from the place at which the offence occurred; the ball must still travel at least 5 metres or be touched by another player of either side before entering the circle

Rule 9.7 now states 'Players may stop, receive and deflect or play the ball in a controlled manner in any part of the field when the ball is at any height including above the shoulder unless this is dangerous or leads to danger.'

Marjie di Rollo

After a two and a half year battle against cancer, Marjie di Rollo passed away on 29 December 2014. Our thoughts are with Ernie and his family. The funeral service is at 12.15 on Friday 16th Jan at St. Vincents R.C. Church, Bentinck Road, Altrincham. WA14 2BP, with a private committal thereafter.